At IIMA, Mallika Sarabhi asks girls to learn self-defence!

The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) on June 12, 2009 hosted a day-long seminar on Gender Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity (GEDI) Dialogue at the IIMA campus. Members from NGOs, corporate, academics, and government representatives voiced their opinions and debated on the issue of gender. The United Nations Development Programme, India was the knowledge partner for the event organised at the campus conference hall on Sunday morning.

Prof. Samir Barua, Director, IIMA delivered the inaugural speech at the institutes conference hall and welcomed the participants and the speaker-panel comprising activist Mallika Sarabhai; Srimathi Shivashankar, Principal Diversity Officer of Infosys; Sunaina Tomar, Secretary, Women and Child Development Department, Government of Gujarat; and IIMA Prof. Anil Gupta.

Negating the thought that bringing about gender equity is a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Shivashankar said, Gender equity has become more important in todays scenario. Having a diverse workforce helps a company to advance since such a workforce gives rise to richer innovation.

Voicing similar opinions, well-known activist, Sarabhai said that the situation will improve only if the issue is addressed by both the sexes equally and with the same seriousness. She said, Women mustdevelop inner confidence. Since only that will help todays women overcome disparities and biases. This will also be possible if we equip our women with self-defence tactics.

The seminar was followed by simultaneous presentations on various topics like recession and its impact on gender issues, CSR and gender, women entrepreneurship, health and gender, education and gender, work environment, social networking, gender policies and legal aspects. The participants of the seminar got an extensive insight into the topics as they were based on discussions of real life experiences and processes for handling the same.
IIMA Prof. Anil Gupta expressed his sorrow on the high drop-out rates of girls as compared with boys and said, Girls can become tomorrows leaders and managers, provided they get proper guidance. It is strange: while on one side we see girls topping merit lists, many drop out of schools only because they arent allowed to pursue future studies.

This increasing need to amend, change, fortify existing policies, procedures and processes related to gender issues brought together the participants at the IIMA. The session discussed ways of preparing a road map for addressing gender issues at the societal and corporate level.